EnvironMentors aims to help underrepresented students into STEM fields

EnvironMentors aims to help underrepresented students into STEM fields

New student-mentoring, college-preparation program comes to Penn State.

Caroline Rosini

April 3, 2018

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Earlier this year, Penn State was approved to be a new chapter of a science-based program that aims to bring underrepresented students into the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The name of the program is EnvironMentors.

According to the National Science Foundation, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and American Indians are poorly represented in STEM fields, constituting no more than 7 percent of the entire STEM workforce.

Gregory Jenkins, an Institutes of Energy and the Environment faculty member and professor of meteorology in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, led the charge to bring EnvironMentors to Penn State. The planned start date is fall 2018.